Herzlich Wilkommen in Thüringen! Feels weird to welcome you here as an American, but so it is. I'm so proud to live in this rebellious region and I love the people here auf dem Land.
Absolutely! when we moved here from the north in 2021 (also kind of a "refugees from modernism situation") I had no idea that the Thüringer had such insistent hearty common sense. In light of the political situation it was like taking a massive weight off the shoulders. Feels like a more real, older Germany in some sense.
I find it interesting how people sort themselves. My wife and I are in the process of building what we hope to be a retirement home in rural Pennsylvania, or "Pennsyltucky" as we affectionately call it. It is less than 100 miles from our current home in New Jersey, but a very different culture.
Even now, the rural area of New Jersey we live in is much different than Princeton, where my work office is. That is only a matter of about 20 miles as the crow flies. We would never consider moving to Princeton, just as my Princeton colleagues would never consider moving the 20 miles to where we live. And it is all a matter of culture. Princeton actually has a nice rural character in places and some attractive architecture, but I can't abide the people.
You may ask why the move if we find our current home mostly to our liking. Sadly, the answer is cultural creep. The Achilles heel of our little town is that it has a convenient railway station that goes directly to downtown Manhattan. Over time, this has had the tendency to attract an undesirable element to the neighborhood. No such train stations are possible in our future home.
Hopefully, your home in the East will resist similar creep and retain its character.
I think fundamentally it has to do with the presence and propagation of the project of philosophical liberalism, which is promoted in its fullest and most undisguised form in the universities. Wherever this culture is, expect an estrangement from reality in the leadership and the corresponding corruption of the populace.
In the case of east Germany, people are both skeptical of western liberalism due to the good aspects of their russian past as well as authoritarianism and corruption, due to the bad aspects. Somehow the west has managed to combine both of these by mixing the worst parts of classical liberalism and progressive liberalism.
people laugh or sadly shake heads when I say how I love to see reportages from rural Russia. Now Eastern Germany is not Russia, thankfully it is the same language, but a least I probably get a milder reaction from you! For a while I tried to learn Russian, but it is impossible, my head won't have it. Thankfully I live in the rural South here in the US, or I might move somewhere near where you are moving LOL.
Then it is perfect that you will soon be able to celebrate with making food in your own kitchen. Though my best friend lives in Saxony - Seiffen - her man is a hearty soul from Thuringia. A fun-energy, hard-working, grounded pair of people. Every visit with them is like breathing again. I have not been able to visit for some years now, but my business in the USA depends on sharing the traditional crafts of these regions, so I am never far in my heart - esp during Advent. With full appreciation for where you are, I wish you all joys of this season in your new, special home. Thank you for all you continue to do for this world!
Far be it for me to minimize your natural and laudable Germanic loathing of indolence, but you’re a very industrious substacker! Take as much time as you need overseeing the work. :)
The particular room in the picture probably won't be renovated for a few years yet – there is a long prioritised list of things to do, and after the kitchen is done I will start on the outside and work my way in. I will post more pictures.
Where I live, the closest town is also the terminus of one line. On average this year, 1/3 of arrivals were over 5 minutes late, except during the Summer when it was over 50%. The five minutes is the lowest unit the state railway corporation deigns to note as being late - 1-4:59 doesn't count as late.
A minor point when you're going to the terminus it may seem, but not to people who use that train to go to and from work daily. And who pay over $200/month to do so.
Edit: I well remember when Stockholm subway was semi-privatised (Connex took over in the early 1990s). It was so bad, they extended "one minute" to ninety seconds. I and many others actually clocked trains being shown on the digital sign as "Arriving in one minute"; ninety seconds or more was the average.
This was because the risk-capitalist corporation running it could be penalised for running late. So - extend the length of a minute. There ain't nothing neoliberal capitalism cannot ruin.
It is exactly the same thing here. They've also decided that all trains are on time if they are within 5 minutes of scheduled arrival time. When they have also scheduled connections within 7 minutes of each other, your train can arrive 'on time' and you can still miss your connection, because running up the platform, down the stairs, across multiple tracks, and up the stairs to catch the next train in two minutes is pretty hard. So, half the time the train is officially late and you miss your connection, and half of the other half of the time is split between being grateful that it all worked out this time and mad dashes through a train station that end with you having to wait for an hour or two anyway.
And I'd wager that "certain people" refusing to pay (suffering no negative consequences) or outright assaulting staff is also a factor detracting from using public transport.
Not to mention "certain people" being given monthly passes allowing the to ride "for free".
In the US the Government took over the passenger trains but in so doing allowed freight to own the tracks. Now it is not unusual to see passenger trains sitting because freight gets to go first. The LA to Chicago train is sometimes 8 hours late or the crew has to stop working and a new crew has to be found.
Wow. I lack words, honestly. That's one thing that's not screwed up here: freight usually runs at night so there's no congestion on the line.
Worst I've been delayed is 14 hours. But that was thanks to a nation-wide total whiteout of a blizzard, so for once not the fault of the railroad company.
When I was a kid in the late 1940's and early 50's passenger was king and it was always on time. At 9 years old I made a 700-mile overnight trip on my own of course the porter watched after me. The glory days of US passenger service ended in the 1960's, airlines took away their business because of the distance needed to be traveled.
I'm a fair bit younger but it was the same here until the 1990s - you could put a seven-year old on the train and tell the conductor where he was to get off and who was to come meet him, and the conductor would make sure everything worked out.
Today, trains and public transportation are for "certain peoples", the poor and tourists only using the three lines that they really pour resources into.
And now, they have grandiose dreams of mag-lev speed trains!
I think about my first trip in a Pullman car, lower bunk and just a curtain between me and the isle. Of course, in those day there were predators, but you never heard about them.
I remember riding passenger trains in the US as a child in the 1960s. What a wonderful experience! I would never have traded that for an airline. And the porters were great too.
Even worse, if the Auto Train overnight from DC to Florida is delayed for such reasons, they won't have any food left. So you're stuck on the train with nothing to eat. You'd think Amtrak might prepare for such a contingency, but apparently they just don't care.
I took Amtrack for awhile in the 00s when I was living with a woman whose many siblings lived along the Manhattan to Buffalo line, so it made visiting them simple. But the trains were always running late, and the seating and food generally sucked. Since we split up I haven't taken it once.
Maybe socialism vs. capitalism is a false dichotomy here. I'd say it's an administrative/managerial/political class that outgrows the functionality their institution is theoretically trying to achieve.
when I was a student our trains were still the envy of Europe. now the Swiss don't like German trains entering their rail network because their chronic lateness screws up their punctuality. long-distance intercity trains are late more than a third of the time, regional rail often better but even there certain lines very bad. I have been suffering under the particular curse of the RE3 train from Dresden to Hof. This train has one job, to drive back and forth from Dresden to Hof every day. What is hard about this, is unclear – it's not like this is a hugely busy length of track, it's all rural Saxon and Bavarian countryside. Who knows what the problem is, for the last three weeks only about half the trains seem to run on time. It's a big deal when they're late as you miss connections, which in the countryside are infrequent, so you get stuck on some platform in the dark for two hours.
Wow. When we lived there, the Bundesbahn was the model for sensible reliability. Looking forward with sad curiosity to hear how that has changed.
Fascinating how East Germany and Thuringia has evolved from when I watched the enemy Demokratische Republik from Franken; then toured the poor, deteriorated countryside with a tour guide who declared it could never reunify with the BRD; crossed it freely as the DDR crumbled; all while I was in the US Army in the late 80s. And now it is a haven from the formerly-shining West. Glad to see the people are in a much better way!
Well, I do have somewhat of an idea, having inhabited at various times some strange demesnes of my own, and the joy of being able to prepare for oneself herbal thingies in heated water is primal and profound. And I envy you that wealth of weathered wood.
Anyway as soon as you're able, keep us please well intellectually fed because the world has no intentions of becoming calmer anytime soon, it seems for damn sure.
Congratulations on restoring what looks like a lovely old house! My grandfather came from the other side of the Vogtland, what is now Czech Republic, and I remember he used to call it “Kleinsibirien”, so stay warm and hopefully your house has a wonderful old Kachelofen.
Don't forget to put in a real wood-burning stove in the kitchen, if you can. It's a life-saver, should power go out in the winter.
Heating, cooking, heating water to do laundry/dishes.
If you have the time, inclination and a little know-how keeping an eye out for old houses that are to be renovated may be worthwhile, as most people simply hire builders who will tear out anything old and worn and replace it with chinese-made pre-fab units - could be a good source of spare parts and materials, quality depending.
Tell me, do you also subscribe to the martial arts-school of "everywhere is a target, anything is a weapon"?
Me, I have (together with a friend) a life-time ban from making New Year's fireworks from commercial kitchen and cleaning chemicals. . . and I still have all my fingers and eyes.
The only lifetime ban I have is from Hinge, because they didn't like that I revealed that they have a formal policy of forcing gay men and trans women onto straight white mens' feeds. If I haven't told that story before, it's a story for another time, but in the email that banned me, here is an exact quote:
"While we acknowledge that everyone presented on your Discover page may not be a perfect match, in our community, it is important to us that our users are recognized based on their specific gender identity and we believe that they deserve the chance to be seen"
Bravery is often relative to what's immediately at stake, I think?
I'm no fighter and have the scars to prove it, but I did learn in compulsory-school to "fight like a cornered rat".
I've never, ever used any kind of dating app or such, unsurprising really seeing as I've been married for over 30 years, but I have memories of shall we say unwanted attention from many sexes/genders when I was a (very nervous) doorman in my youth.
When a gaggle of beyond drunk 45+ divorced women tries to fondle your bum or grab your crotch while hooting and hollering, let me tell you that you really wish tear-gas was legal.
The faggots weren't a problem, they might try to flirt but would just drop a snide remark if rebuffed - maybe yester-years crop of pervoids simply had more style than the woketranswtfbbq-alfalphabet-soup of genders?
I have received a total of 3 matches across all dating platforms, in my life. If I was regularly getting a stream of real matches I would be somewhat less mad about the junk in my feed. But I wasn't, so I am
As much as I look forward to your pieces, please take time off to enjoy the process of renovating your beautiful old house. We have renovated several old houses and it is important to make those permanent construction decisions undistracted! Also take time to enjoy your progress so far and to dream of future decor!
Will you have a hard time selling the place without much of a loss because of the migrants or maybe you were hopefully renting?
My only experience with Thüringen is the bratwurst sold in Denmark when I was a kid and getting a letter from the constabulary about a photo radar ticket when driving from DRESDEN to the western parts. I used to get lots of photo tickets on the autobahn because it's hard when it's suddenly 100 at an autobahnkreuz when you approach it at 200++ km/h.
I'm not sure the migrants will do much to the price (they're offset by proximity to the school, where they're housed), but the German housing market has been battered by interest rate hikes and of course all the crazy home heating ordinances the Greens rammed through. It won't be pretty, but there's not much to do about it.
It's a listed building, so I enjoy some exceptions from the home heating ordinances. The Kachelofen is now purely decorative, there is a gas furnace in the basement – one of the the things that had been modernised by the prior owners.
First want to highlight that I was passing through Thüringen because I was driving west from Dresden, not Dortmund.
I wonder when the Greens will ban the burning of anything containing carbon. Maybe then you could remove the oven? In the early days of the climate cult, it was ok to burn wood because it was "renewable", so the CO2 would be used to grow a new tree, or so went the theory. But now it is zero carbon or bust.
It is interesting that the Greens' communist cousins (the present Die Linke) ran the DDR entirely on brown coal (lignite) power. A lot of old German inudstrial plants still use it for co-generation of power and steam. And it's still used in some power stations. The 2020 law prevented building of new plants and any upgrading or retrofitting. I think 2038 is the end date for all lignite. I imagine that it was used in home furnaces/ ovens back in the day.
Well, the kitchen reno is genuinely one of the most difficult to endure. It combines plumbing, electricity and serious thought to every square millimeter and space usage. And it needs to be installed with precision. I’m happy for you that it is almost done! Did you choose a style that is sympathetic to the age of your home?
This is a whole story in itself. These old villas have truly terrible kitchens, they were for the staff to cook in while the gentlepersons enjoyed the fruits of their labours in grand dining rooms. There was a plan, in my particular house, to expand the shitty kitchen in the late 1930s. They secured approval from local authorities, it was all set, I even have the architect's sketches. But, WWII struck and it never happened. So, I must deal with a crap kitchen because Hitler.
The alternative was to make the dining room into a massive kitchen, but the violence that would do to the feng shui of the place was too much for me, also I had nightmares about cutting open the floor to reroute plumbing (licensing authorities would probably have to be involved, etc.), so I keep the small staff kitchen and try to make the best of it. This will just be a pragmatic facility in the back of the house. I chose simple modern style, no original details are left there to preserve anyway. I kept the grand dining room unchanged, try to figure out how to use it sensibly.
If you optimally use space and know what you want in appliances, you can do wonders in a small kitchen. I’m speaking from experience, and i love to cook.
Do you have any further ideas along these lines or where to look for good design help? I have a small kitchen that desperately needs renovation but I don’t want to start without a good plan
Basic design is (1) triangular between cooking, fridge and sink, so you move economically, without walking back and forth. (2) what do you really want as far as appliances are concerned. Steamer, oven, microwave, fridge/freezer, dishwasher? My kitchen is a Schüller brand and measures 2.70x2.00 m. Cabinets below and overhead (space between top of upper cabinets and ceiling finished with a board, preventing collection of dust and grease. Since it is small, I chose white and a black stone countertop. Simple and clean looking.
On the short side is a floor to ceiling cabinet unit, which holds a small fridge at the bottom, over which is a self-cleaning Bosch oven (regular size - so no room for Butterball 😉) and above the oven is a cupboard that holds the really big bowls and plates and other odds). Cupboards are 60 cm deep. Next to that is an induction glass cooking plate of 60 cm wide, built into the countertop, with underneath 3 drawers of 80 cm wide, housing cutlery and pots and pans. There is an extractor hood in the cupboard above, which houses all herbs and spices. Corner unit has 2 shelves that completely pull out. Next, on the long end, are 4 drawers, 2 for small kitchen tools and cutlery, 1 for alu foil and wrap and such, bottom one for dish and tea towels. Then comes the sink, with room for cleaning agents underneath, and dishwasher at the end. In the top cabinets, long end, are vinegars, salts, packages of this n that, plates and dishes, microwave, over which a cupboard with paper towels, tea and coffee. I find it works very well. Wish the room around the induction plate was more, but it is what it is. Mind you, right off the kitchen is what we call a side kitchen, which houses 2 large liebherr fridge/freezers of <2.oo m which house all that i don’t put in the kitchen one, the heat pump, plus washer and dryer. I hope i’ve given you some inspiration. I find it helps if you google on kitchen design and think long and hard about how you really cook and use your kitchen. Best of luck in making a good choice,
Thank you very much for this! It will help me think it through. I do have a space where a pantry can go but it’s the space for utensils, dishes, and appliances that worries me. I have a lot of things I only use occasionally but are nice when needed, but I also hate clutter. I look forward to not hating my kitchen…
Just seeing your kind response! Wow, I can only imagine the headache with denkmalschutz involved. I think we will call your kitchen the new “scullery kitchen” so the city can now denkmalschutz that too LOL
I found a dead mummified bird in the attic when I was up checking for leaks a few weeks ago, and the joke was that I better not tell the Denkmalschutz or they'd make me put it back.
Having renovated an old home (during my misspent youth) I’m impressed and stunned that you can get anything else done at all. Congratulations and good luck!
Having had our 35 yr old kitchen replaced a couple of months ago (we’ve lived in this house 6 yrs) I can empathise but I will say this as a Brit expat in DE… the German job was top class. I’ve probably had several kitchens done in GB over the years, in various properties both lived in or rented out, and the quality & fitting was not up to DE standards. Rather like my 11 yr old Audi, DE build quality is inimitable. Now explain to me why DE is in the rut it’s in…? Doesn’t make sense.
Herzlich Wilkommen in Thüringen! Feels weird to welcome you here as an American, but so it is. I'm so proud to live in this rebellious region and I love the people here auf dem Land.
thank you! East Germany is such a social/cultural improvement over the West, really kind of a relief
Absolutely! when we moved here from the north in 2021 (also kind of a "refugees from modernism situation") I had no idea that the Thüringer had such insistent hearty common sense. In light of the political situation it was like taking a massive weight off the shoulders. Feels like a more real, older Germany in some sense.
Germany like it was before madness took over!
I find it interesting how people sort themselves. My wife and I are in the process of building what we hope to be a retirement home in rural Pennsylvania, or "Pennsyltucky" as we affectionately call it. It is less than 100 miles from our current home in New Jersey, but a very different culture.
Even now, the rural area of New Jersey we live in is much different than Princeton, where my work office is. That is only a matter of about 20 miles as the crow flies. We would never consider moving to Princeton, just as my Princeton colleagues would never consider moving the 20 miles to where we live. And it is all a matter of culture. Princeton actually has a nice rural character in places and some attractive architecture, but I can't abide the people.
You may ask why the move if we find our current home mostly to our liking. Sadly, the answer is cultural creep. The Achilles heel of our little town is that it has a convenient railway station that goes directly to downtown Manhattan. Over time, this has had the tendency to attract an undesirable element to the neighborhood. No such train stations are possible in our future home.
Hopefully, your home in the East will resist similar creep and retain its character.
I think fundamentally it has to do with the presence and propagation of the project of philosophical liberalism, which is promoted in its fullest and most undisguised form in the universities. Wherever this culture is, expect an estrangement from reality in the leadership and the corresponding corruption of the populace.
In the case of east Germany, people are both skeptical of western liberalism due to the good aspects of their russian past as well as authoritarianism and corruption, due to the bad aspects. Somehow the west has managed to combine both of these by mixing the worst parts of classical liberalism and progressive liberalism.
people laugh or sadly shake heads when I say how I love to see reportages from rural Russia. Now Eastern Germany is not Russia, thankfully it is the same language, but a least I probably get a milder reaction from you! For a while I tried to learn Russian, but it is impossible, my head won't have it. Thankfully I live in the rural South here in the US, or I might move somewhere near where you are moving LOL.
Those who remember life under communism appreciate their freedom, and are far more willing to take risks to fight oppression.
What a magnificent building.
I wonder how eugyppius will bring it back to life?
Happy Advent to all!
yes, I wish you and everyone a happy advent. I love Christmas time so much.
Then it is perfect that you will soon be able to celebrate with making food in your own kitchen. Though my best friend lives in Saxony - Seiffen - her man is a hearty soul from Thuringia. A fun-energy, hard-working, grounded pair of people. Every visit with them is like breathing again. I have not been able to visit for some years now, but my business in the USA depends on sharing the traditional crafts of these regions, so I am never far in my heart - esp during Advent. With full appreciation for where you are, I wish you all joys of this season in your new, special home. Thank you for all you continue to do for this world!
Thank you. It's a wonderful season.
I suspect that eugyppius will leave much of the house as close to the original as possible.
Far be it for me to minimize your natural and laudable Germanic loathing of indolence, but you’re a very industrious substacker! Take as much time as you need overseeing the work. :)
Promise to give us 'after' pics?
The particular room in the picture probably won't be renovated for a few years yet – there is a long prioritised list of things to do, and after the kitchen is done I will start on the outside and work my way in. I will post more pictures.
" I’ve found myself every day on yet another unreliable train." I have been informed that nothing German is ever unreliable, how can this be???
Your renovation project in Thuringia sounds amazing.
German rail has become a total disaster. How that happened will be the topic of future blog posts.
Can it be worse than here?
Where I live, the closest town is also the terminus of one line. On average this year, 1/3 of arrivals were over 5 minutes late, except during the Summer when it was over 50%. The five minutes is the lowest unit the state railway corporation deigns to note as being late - 1-4:59 doesn't count as late.
A minor point when you're going to the terminus it may seem, but not to people who use that train to go to and from work daily. And who pay over $200/month to do so.
Edit: I well remember when Stockholm subway was semi-privatised (Connex took over in the early 1990s). It was so bad, they extended "one minute" to ninety seconds. I and many others actually clocked trains being shown on the digital sign as "Arriving in one minute"; ninety seconds or more was the average.
This was because the risk-capitalist corporation running it could be penalised for running late. So - extend the length of a minute. There ain't nothing neoliberal capitalism cannot ruin.
It is exactly the same thing here. They've also decided that all trains are on time if they are within 5 minutes of scheduled arrival time. When they have also scheduled connections within 7 minutes of each other, your train can arrive 'on time' and you can still miss your connection, because running up the platform, down the stairs, across multiple tracks, and up the stairs to catch the next train in two minutes is pretty hard. So, half the time the train is officially late and you miss your connection, and half of the other half of the time is split between being grateful that it all worked out this time and mad dashes through a train station that end with you having to wait for an hour or two anyway.
And I'd wager that "certain people" refusing to pay (suffering no negative consequences) or outright assaulting staff is also a factor detracting from using public transport.
Not to mention "certain people" being given monthly passes allowing the to ride "for free".
yes. itisallsotiresome.jpg
I'm just back from Japan. Not a late train. Ever. I was impressed.
In the US the Government took over the passenger trains but in so doing allowed freight to own the tracks. Now it is not unusual to see passenger trains sitting because freight gets to go first. The LA to Chicago train is sometimes 8 hours late or the crew has to stop working and a new crew has to be found.
Wow. I lack words, honestly. That's one thing that's not screwed up here: freight usually runs at night so there's no congestion on the line.
Worst I've been delayed is 14 hours. But that was thanks to a nation-wide total whiteout of a blizzard, so for once not the fault of the railroad company.
When I was a kid in the late 1940's and early 50's passenger was king and it was always on time. At 9 years old I made a 700-mile overnight trip on my own of course the porter watched after me. The glory days of US passenger service ended in the 1960's, airlines took away their business because of the distance needed to be traveled.
I'm a fair bit younger but it was the same here until the 1990s - you could put a seven-year old on the train and tell the conductor where he was to get off and who was to come meet him, and the conductor would make sure everything worked out.
Today, trains and public transportation are for "certain peoples", the poor and tourists only using the three lines that they really pour resources into.
And now, they have grandiose dreams of mag-lev speed trains!
The Santa Fe Railway kept up its standards into the '60s when others decayed. All gone now.
I think about my first trip in a Pullman car, lower bunk and just a curtain between me and the isle. Of course, in those day there were predators, but you never heard about them.
I remember riding passenger trains in the US as a child in the 1960s. What a wonderful experience! I would never have traded that for an airline. And the porters were great too.
Even worse, if the Auto Train overnight from DC to Florida is delayed for such reasons, they won't have any food left. So you're stuck on the train with nothing to eat. You'd think Amtrak might prepare for such a contingency, but apparently they just don't care.
I took Amtrack for awhile in the 00s when I was living with a woman whose many siblings lived along the Manhattan to Buffalo line, so it made visiting them simple. But the trains were always running late, and the seating and food generally sucked. Since we split up I haven't taken it once.
I have found that socialism is much more efficient at ruining things than capitalism.
Ruin is ruin.
Maybe socialism vs. capitalism is a false dichotomy here. I'd say it's an administrative/managerial/political class that outgrows the functionality their institution is theoretically trying to achieve.
That changes everything I thought I knew about Germany...
when I was a student our trains were still the envy of Europe. now the Swiss don't like German trains entering their rail network because their chronic lateness screws up their punctuality. long-distance intercity trains are late more than a third of the time, regional rail often better but even there certain lines very bad. I have been suffering under the particular curse of the RE3 train from Dresden to Hof. This train has one job, to drive back and forth from Dresden to Hof every day. What is hard about this, is unclear – it's not like this is a hugely busy length of track, it's all rural Saxon and Bavarian countryside. Who knows what the problem is, for the last three weeks only about half the trains seem to run on time. It's a big deal when they're late as you miss connections, which in the countryside are infrequent, so you get stuck on some platform in the dark for two hours.
How about sickness of personnel🤔💉💉💉?
The trend was clear and accelerating way before covid l. It's just a maintenance death spiral
That was my first thought, I wonder how many employees quit or are out sick after the mandates.
unbelievable. Germany used to be close to Switzerland in precision! Now it sounds like a total disaster, not just train-wise, but completely !
Wow. When we lived there, the Bundesbahn was the model for sensible reliability. Looking forward with sad curiosity to hear how that has changed.
Fascinating how East Germany and Thuringia has evolved from when I watched the enemy Demokratische Republik from Franken; then toured the poor, deteriorated countryside with a tour guide who declared it could never reunify with the BRD; crossed it freely as the DDR crumbled; all while I was in the US Army in the late 80s. And now it is a haven from the formerly-shining West. Glad to see the people are in a much better way!
Eine sehr Frohe Weihnachtszeit!
Well, I do have somewhat of an idea, having inhabited at various times some strange demesnes of my own, and the joy of being able to prepare for oneself herbal thingies in heated water is primal and profound. And I envy you that wealth of weathered wood.
Anyway as soon as you're able, keep us please well intellectually fed because the world has no intentions of becoming calmer anytime soon, it seems for damn sure.
Congratulations on restoring what looks like a lovely old house! My grandfather came from the other side of the Vogtland, what is now Czech Republic, and I remember he used to call it “Kleinsibirien”, so stay warm and hopefully your house has a wonderful old Kachelofen.
Don't forget to put in a real wood-burning stove in the kitchen, if you can. It's a life-saver, should power go out in the winter.
Heating, cooking, heating water to do laundry/dishes.
If you have the time, inclination and a little know-how keeping an eye out for old houses that are to be renovated may be worthwhile, as most people simply hire builders who will tear out anything old and worn and replace it with chinese-made pre-fab units - could be a good source of spare parts and materials, quality depending.
And don't forget, any place is a fireplace if you're brave enough
El-oH-eL!
Tell me, do you also subscribe to the martial arts-school of "everywhere is a target, anything is a weapon"?
Me, I have (together with a friend) a life-time ban from making New Year's fireworks from commercial kitchen and cleaning chemicals. . . and I still have all my fingers and eyes.
Teeth, not so much.
> Everywhere is a target, anything is a weapon
I mean, if you're brave enough. I am not brave
The only lifetime ban I have is from Hinge, because they didn't like that I revealed that they have a formal policy of forcing gay men and trans women onto straight white mens' feeds. If I haven't told that story before, it's a story for another time, but in the email that banned me, here is an exact quote:
"While we acknowledge that everyone presented on your Discover page may not be a perfect match, in our community, it is important to us that our users are recognized based on their specific gender identity and we believe that they deserve the chance to be seen"
Bravery is often relative to what's immediately at stake, I think?
I'm no fighter and have the scars to prove it, but I did learn in compulsory-school to "fight like a cornered rat".
I've never, ever used any kind of dating app or such, unsurprising really seeing as I've been married for over 30 years, but I have memories of shall we say unwanted attention from many sexes/genders when I was a (very nervous) doorman in my youth.
When a gaggle of beyond drunk 45+ divorced women tries to fondle your bum or grab your crotch while hooting and hollering, let me tell you that you really wish tear-gas was legal.
The faggots weren't a problem, they might try to flirt but would just drop a snide remark if rebuffed - maybe yester-years crop of pervoids simply had more style than the woketranswtfbbq-alfalphabet-soup of genders?
I have received a total of 3 matches across all dating platforms, in my life. If I was regularly getting a stream of real matches I would be somewhat less mad about the junk in my feed. But I wasn't, so I am
As much as I look forward to your pieces, please take time off to enjoy the process of renovating your beautiful old house. We have renovated several old houses and it is important to make those permanent construction decisions undistracted! Also take time to enjoy your progress so far and to dream of future decor!
How old is the place?
ca. 140 years old
Very cool
I am so happy for you and your new domestic adventure. Please accept my best wishes.
It’s so uplifting to witness a positive and uplifting project – highlighting how miserable and petty are the political issues besetting us.
Will you have a hard time selling the place without much of a loss because of the migrants or maybe you were hopefully renting?
My only experience with Thüringen is the bratwurst sold in Denmark when I was a kid and getting a letter from the constabulary about a photo radar ticket when driving from DRESDEN to the western parts. I used to get lots of photo tickets on the autobahn because it's hard when it's suddenly 100 at an autobahnkreuz when you approach it at 200++ km/h.
I'm not sure the migrants will do much to the price (they're offset by proximity to the school, where they're housed), but the German housing market has been battered by interest rate hikes and of course all the crazy home heating ordinances the Greens rammed through. It won't be pretty, but there's not much to do about it.
Life's to short to live somewhere you dislike or to drink shitty beer...;)
Best of luck. I would gladly come help you with the renovation. I grew up in a construction family.
Or wine 😘
So will you have to renovate the heating to green specs, or will a good old Kachelofen do?
It's a listed building, so I enjoy some exceptions from the home heating ordinances. The Kachelofen is now purely decorative, there is a gas furnace in the basement – one of the the things that had been modernised by the prior owners.
We live in interesting times….. i would keep a back up to the gas furnace Eugyppius 😘
indeed. I could not get rid of the Kachelofen even if I wanted to, it is historically protected
First want to highlight that I was passing through Thüringen because I was driving west from Dresden, not Dortmund.
I wonder when the Greens will ban the burning of anything containing carbon. Maybe then you could remove the oven? In the early days of the climate cult, it was ok to burn wood because it was "renewable", so the CO2 would be used to grow a new tree, or so went the theory. But now it is zero carbon or bust.
It is interesting that the Greens' communist cousins (the present Die Linke) ran the DDR entirely on brown coal (lignite) power. A lot of old German inudstrial plants still use it for co-generation of power and steam. And it's still used in some power stations. The 2020 law prevented building of new plants and any upgrading or retrofitting. I think 2038 is the end date for all lignite. I imagine that it was used in home furnaces/ ovens back in the day.
Started listening to podcast, but need to prepare dinner, so will save for early Wednesday morning.
Your french host says your name faster than I believed possible.
The house will be great, wood floors, original or not even imperfect, accentuates the age of the house.
Listen to Rikard, and get a wood cookstove/waterheater.
That is, if woodburning is not banned in Germany...
Well, the kitchen reno is genuinely one of the most difficult to endure. It combines plumbing, electricity and serious thought to every square millimeter and space usage. And it needs to be installed with precision. I’m happy for you that it is almost done! Did you choose a style that is sympathetic to the age of your home?
This is a whole story in itself. These old villas have truly terrible kitchens, they were for the staff to cook in while the gentlepersons enjoyed the fruits of their labours in grand dining rooms. There was a plan, in my particular house, to expand the shitty kitchen in the late 1930s. They secured approval from local authorities, it was all set, I even have the architect's sketches. But, WWII struck and it never happened. So, I must deal with a crap kitchen because Hitler.
The alternative was to make the dining room into a massive kitchen, but the violence that would do to the feng shui of the place was too much for me, also I had nightmares about cutting open the floor to reroute plumbing (licensing authorities would probably have to be involved, etc.), so I keep the small staff kitchen and try to make the best of it. This will just be a pragmatic facility in the back of the house. I chose simple modern style, no original details are left there to preserve anyway. I kept the grand dining room unchanged, try to figure out how to use it sensibly.
If you optimally use space and know what you want in appliances, you can do wonders in a small kitchen. I’m speaking from experience, and i love to cook.
Do you have any further ideas along these lines or where to look for good design help? I have a small kitchen that desperately needs renovation but I don’t want to start without a good plan
Basic design is (1) triangular between cooking, fridge and sink, so you move economically, without walking back and forth. (2) what do you really want as far as appliances are concerned. Steamer, oven, microwave, fridge/freezer, dishwasher? My kitchen is a Schüller brand and measures 2.70x2.00 m. Cabinets below and overhead (space between top of upper cabinets and ceiling finished with a board, preventing collection of dust and grease. Since it is small, I chose white and a black stone countertop. Simple and clean looking.
On the short side is a floor to ceiling cabinet unit, which holds a small fridge at the bottom, over which is a self-cleaning Bosch oven (regular size - so no room for Butterball 😉) and above the oven is a cupboard that holds the really big bowls and plates and other odds). Cupboards are 60 cm deep. Next to that is an induction glass cooking plate of 60 cm wide, built into the countertop, with underneath 3 drawers of 80 cm wide, housing cutlery and pots and pans. There is an extractor hood in the cupboard above, which houses all herbs and spices. Corner unit has 2 shelves that completely pull out. Next, on the long end, are 4 drawers, 2 for small kitchen tools and cutlery, 1 for alu foil and wrap and such, bottom one for dish and tea towels. Then comes the sink, with room for cleaning agents underneath, and dishwasher at the end. In the top cabinets, long end, are vinegars, salts, packages of this n that, plates and dishes, microwave, over which a cupboard with paper towels, tea and coffee. I find it works very well. Wish the room around the induction plate was more, but it is what it is. Mind you, right off the kitchen is what we call a side kitchen, which houses 2 large liebherr fridge/freezers of <2.oo m which house all that i don’t put in the kitchen one, the heat pump, plus washer and dryer. I hope i’ve given you some inspiration. I find it helps if you google on kitchen design and think long and hard about how you really cook and use your kitchen. Best of luck in making a good choice,
Thank you very much for this! It will help me think it through. I do have a space where a pantry can go but it’s the space for utensils, dishes, and appliances that worries me. I have a lot of things I only use occasionally but are nice when needed, but I also hate clutter. I look forward to not hating my kitchen…
Just seeing your kind response! Wow, I can only imagine the headache with denkmalschutz involved. I think we will call your kitchen the new “scullery kitchen” so the city can now denkmalschutz that too LOL
I found a dead mummified bird in the attic when I was up checking for leaks a few weeks ago, and the joke was that I better not tell the Denkmalschutz or they'd make me put it back.
Basil fawlty revisited 😂
Looking forward to those next poasts! ;)
Having renovated an old home (during my misspent youth) I’m impressed and stunned that you can get anything else done at all. Congratulations and good luck!
Having had our 35 yr old kitchen replaced a couple of months ago (we’ve lived in this house 6 yrs) I can empathise but I will say this as a Brit expat in DE… the German job was top class. I’ve probably had several kitchens done in GB over the years, in various properties both lived in or rented out, and the quality & fitting was not up to DE standards. Rather like my 11 yr old Audi, DE build quality is inimitable. Now explain to me why DE is in the rut it’s in…? Doesn’t make sense.